Meta

salary

Please include a salary with the job description that you posted, even if it’s a general number, a minimum amount, or a range. Just give me a number.

I recently went to an interview where the salary was not listed with the job description. I thought I did really well at the interview: I got along with the interviewer, I had enough experience, and I believe I showed confidence that I could do the job well.

The woman I interviewed with asked my expected hourly rate and I told her a number that I didn’t think was unreasonable for the position. It was also a comparable rate to a similar position I had at the time. After the interview, the woman told me that I could expect a call from her the next day (Wednesday) to set up a second interview on Friday. I was stoked.

Two days passed by without a call. On Thursday I sent her a friendly email just to ask about the second interview. I got a response back stating that I was no longer being considered for the position. Needless to say I was pretty crushed. I later found out from a mutual friend that the reason I wasn’t asked to the second interview was because I had asked for too much money. The position was entry-level (which also wasn’t written on the job description) and was paying just over minimum wage.

I was actually pretty relieved when I found that out. It wasn’t that I wasn’t qualified for the position. They just wanted to pay less money than what I know I’m worth. Had I known initially what price they were willing to pay I wouldn’t even have applied.

What a waste of my time and yours, Employer, that we had to sit through that interview and send emails back and forth when we both should have known that I wasn’t going to be hired anyway. Who knows how many times this has happened to others as well. I know that hiring someone new can be an expensive process for companies and can take a lot of time, but you can make it a bit easier on yourself.

Posting a salary or hourly rate that you’re willing to pay can weed out candidates immediately. If I see a job is willing to pay $100k a year, I know that I’m likely not qualified for the position, even without reading the job description. Likewise with a job that pays minimum wage; I won’t apply because I am over-qualified. Providing a salary range to potential candidates can allow them to gauge if the position would be a good fit for them before you, the employer, ever has to review their application.